With tuppence for paper and string...

Or, in our case, with 'one dollar' - we had our own sets of wings! 

 With your feet on the ground you're a bird in flight,
with your fist holding tight to the string of your kite.

Dear Mr. Banks, I love you and your changed spirit.

The sweet and salty breezes on the coast provide perfect kite flying conditions. 

In other news, I forgot to take the memory card to my camera. Is anyone shocked? I remembered extra batteries! Just not the card. *sigh* Good thing my hubby has a gorgeous hunk of a camera, which I grabbed and ran outside when we were flying kites. 

He actually knows how to use his camera (I only use it like a point and shoot), which means the settings were all funky for some shoot he had been doing, so all of these photos that I took here are way blown out. But hey! I kinda like them anyway. 

Yes, she's wearing a long black cape. Stranger things have happened. 

Claire and another new-second-cousin were inside enjoying some quiet time in their jammies. She loves having people her same size age to play with. 

Flying kites is very fulfilling. You just have to hold onto the handle, and you're doing it! And it's cool! Unless, of course, you get a dud kite - then it's kinda depressing. My advice: Never spend more than $3 on a kite, as they tend to get more technical and harder to fly after that. 

This has been a public service announcement.

 And who doesn't like flying kites? You can forget that you're an adult for a few precious minutes and relive the joy of being five again.

Unless, of course, you only grew up physically, and your mentality remained young. Then you're still loving being five.

:)

Remember what I said about Caleb's ability to play with little people? It also applies when it comes to his sister. A quality which I adore.

Let us begin

Raise your hand if you love the ocean. 

So do I. 

To say that our stay on the Oregon Coast was lovely, idealistic, and heavenly would be putting it mildly. I'm serious. I'm almost speechless. Almost.

Thanks to Mandie for snapping this shot of the house, since I forgot to. I was affected to the point of more-airheaded-than-usual by the loveliness. 

 There I was, inside the house, sneaking photos of the outside without interrupting the play going on in the backyard. This is our version of Ultimate Frisbee.

 It takes danger to a whole new level.

Katie may or may not be saying "Ha ha! Sucka!" to my three year old.

We're not competitive.

I kept my distance. I didn't want my rugged athleticism to ruin their game.

But enough of this, let's go down to the water!

Sisters never get old, did you know that? I mean, individually they do (not that you're old, girls), but sisterliness never ages. Kinda like cheese - it just gets better. 

 I was assuming that this one would take to the beach well, and she did. This child loves mud, dirt, and water, so what did you expect? The Ocean's full of the stuff! Water I mean. Did you know that?

Emmy is 3.5 inches taller than she was one year ago, when I was snapping pics of her and her Kate on this very same beach. I'd rather not talk about it. 

Uh, yes, actually, it was a little chilly. Jonah didn't mind. 

Remember what I was saying about loveliness? It was! The beach, I mean. There's no better word for it. Isn't lovely a lovely word? It's so sweet and cool and it smells good to say it. That doesn't have to make sense. 

We met new cousins, and you know how much we love cousins. Second cousins, if you want to get technical. All the same to us. 

 Honestly, I could post about this little one all night. Most of the photos are of her. It was her first time at the beach! We do love our other children. Promise.

"But not as much as me, right?" 

"I'm not answering that question."

The amount of photos of this child may also be due to the fact that I had to stay by her all the time, while the other two were off romping down the shore. 

 I mean, the other three. Caleb loves to play as much as any other 5 year old I've ever met. He is completely unaffected by social expectations when it comes to playing with his kids.

He is able to connect with them in a way that I cannot. It takes away many of my fears for the (very distant) teenage years. 

You won't hear Emmy complaining about his ability to play. This photo makes my heart happy.

I know that this post made our week sound blissful and, well, utopian. But the truth is, it was. It just was. You'll see, I have more to share.

WINNERS!

Howdy, ya'll!

I'm back. We're back. It was everything we hoped for and more, including lovely.

This might be my favorite photo of the whole event, but there are ever so many to choose from. I'm positive that you will be completely overwhelmed with photos of happy faces on the sand very soon, but first things first.

What was the first thing I did after I got home (besides collapse in a heap on my muchly-missed bed)?

Chose the victims winners, of course. It was completely random, as you will soon see:

Winner of The Very Hungry Caterpillar is.... drum roll...

Ben and Camille!
That kinda cracked me up, since in her comment she said:
"How about I win for being the FIRST to comment:)"

And then I drew them first. Funny, eh? Hilarious.

Winner of I Love You, Stinky Face is...

 Diana!
That made me smile, because I love her.
Not that I don't love all the rest of you too, of course.

Winner of the photo is...

Zack Tenney!
But alas, in his comment he specifically said that he didn't want to be in the drawing. This posed a problem, since Caleb was already thinking up all sorts of funny photos that he could send to his best friend Zack instead of an actual photo of the ocean. So it looks like Zack will be getting a mystery photo in the mail soon, and we drew another name for the ocean photo.

And the winner of the ocean photo is...

Britney and Bob!
We hope you love it, Britney dear and Bob dear!
The photo has yet to be chosen. Caleb is busily sorting and editing and beautifying and as soon as the photo is chosen I will post it here in all of it's glory. Then I'll get one printed for you (and one for me too) and it'll be off in the mail.

He took a lot of photos. 500ish. Katie took this one of him, doin' his thing. 

If you winners could email me your home addresses, that would be helpful. jackepsel at gmail dot com.
And now, I go to confront my mountain of salty, sandy laundry. Wish me luck.

Giveaway! (what?)

Hello, chums.

Tonight, I want to speak with you about a strange phenomenon which happens to me... often. 'Often' I am approached by either a good friend or a very distant acquaintance, and they will blushingly admit to me that they read my blog. I'm going to tell you what I tell them: "Really? Thanks! I'm so glad." 

So this is me, telling all of you readers, that I love you. If my blog was only meant for me and my family, it would be private.  6 years ago, when I started blogging, yes - I only did it so that my family (who lived in Italy at the time) could see my growing belly, and after that get updates on my new baby girl. This blog has done some serious evolving since then! 

I have grown to adore blogging. I have never been the type of person to really care what people think of me, so I never thought that I was blogging with the purpose of entertaining anyone. I always told myself that the number of comments that a post received meant nothing to me. 

I'm done kidding myself. I want you, I need you, oh baby oh baby.

So please, if you think that you're a "Blog Stalker", you're not! Throw away your guilt! I welcome you here. My life is a sort of utopia, and I enjoy sharing it. And I need to share it, because it's important - just like your life is. 

And so, without further ado, I announce my first ever giveaway. Which makes me feel all funny inside because giveaways are for 'real blog's', and I'm not one, but I'm doing one anyway. Cuz I lurve ya. 

I'm going to give away three things, one each to three lucky commenters, and the drawing will be completely random. You just have to comment! It's not hard! And I want to hear you. 

The first prize is one of my favorite children's books:

For oh so many reasons, I adore this book. One large, hardback copy to one of you!

Another prize will be this book, which I also adore:

The dialog which takes place between the Mom and her little boy is priceless. One softcover copy to one of you!

Come on. If you don't have kids, you know someone who does. Then again, if you don't have kids, you're still gonna wanna have these because they're delightful. 

The last prize will be a matted 5X7 photo of The Sea, which Caleb is going to photograph this coming week. Because we're going here tomorrow:

Oh yes.

The Oregon coast. I can already smell it, and it smells good.
Which means I may be away from blogland for a while. I'm not really sure if I'll have internet access or not. Plus when I get there after being in the car for 15 hours with my three very small children, I may not be sane enough to type.

So. Here's how it works. I will be back on Monday. Not this monday, next monday. And I won't be able to read your comments until then!
So tell me what your favorite book was when you were little, and you're entered to win.

Mine was Go Dog Go!

Deja Vu

Claire was cruising around in her jeans this morning, and I had Deja Vu. I LOVE deja vu, don't you? Creeps me out. 

So I plopped her up on the couch and started taking pictures. The reason for my deja vu, is these photos here: 

Hi Emmy, four years ago. 

Same exact jeans!

Different diaper. 

My MIL has been trying to convince me that Claire has more hair than Emmy did. She was right. 

The couch is in the same place, but it's a different couch since the last photo session.
And.... that's about all that has changed! Besides my hair and my tummy and my sanity.

 Oh Emmy. You were such an adorable pill. We had so much fun together! You were constantly cracking me up, although I guess that hasn't changed.

I was so naive back then. I still am, but not as much.
I loved being a Mother of one - and you were the lucky one! I love being a Mother of three now, but I'm sure glad that my babies came one at a time.

 Speaking of adorable pill.
She wants to be exactly like Emmy, but alas for her, she is not. She is my Claire, and I lurve her.

 Someday she will see that being Claire is so much better than being Emmy. Unless, of course, you're Emmy. Then being Emmy is SO much better. But only because you should be yourself. Not that you have any other option, right?
What am I trying to say?

Hi Claire. I love this photo. Sums you up. 

I love being in love with you. 

Someday, hopefully, you will have younger sibling(s) and will no longer be my youngest baby. But you and Emmy and Jonah will always be my babies. 

Sorry!

People do this for fun?

Last saturday, my family and I participated in what would become a painful experience. 

Very painful. 

The level of pain depends on which muscle group you are. 

Our church group puts on an annual 5K Walk/Run each year. Have I ever ran that far in my life? Let's say I haven't, just for kicks. Did I think that I could? Oh yeah! Was I wrong? Oh yeah. 

I put in an honest effort, ok? Mostly honest. 

I handed the camera to my little Sista who snapped exactly three photos before handing the camera to Emmy. 

Tess and Hanna were both there to run with us. Tess and her kids don't usually arise from their beds before 9am, so being at the church parking lot at 7:30am was some serious effort on their part. You probably couldn't tell that from the above photo, which is why I explained. You're welcome.

My kids, ever the wee-morning-hours-type, were happy to be there!

Uh... most of my kids.

This is about the time that Emmy took over with the photography.

"Push the silver button... that's it! Did you take a picture?"
"Yes. It was you!"

We had many friends there, and these are a few of our favorites. And Emmy's favorites, as you would be able to see if I decided to post all 30 photos that she took of them.

Becca! You're being papparazzied! It's a good thing she's so glamorous at 7:30am, because thanks to Emmy; she's even more famous now. (She was already famous, did you know that?)

I call this photo "anxiously awaiting the pain"
(Ruining the ending a little bit for you here: see that cute girl in the white shirt? She ran the entire thing. As in, without stopping. I know. Wow).

Oh, Hi Tess:

Emmy was in the bike trailer-turned jogger stroller. Hence the ground level photography. She's not really that short. But close.

And then.... the moment arrived... and we were off! Well, you know. They were off. We needed a few miles yards of walking first. To get our blood pumping. We knew what we were doing.

See you at the finish line, neighbors! We'll save some breakfast for you! Don't give up! You'll make it! Here, follow us! We'll be the pace runners! Best idea.

No one went for my great idea. They all wanted to run the 5K, for some odd reason.

Hanna, what do you think you are doing? Don't you know that running is bad for you? Bad bad. Very bad. If you're me.

Long story short, we made it WAit a minute. I think I already blew it on the 'short' part.
Long story long, we finished. Alive. Do I dare post my time? Yes. Yes I do.

I walked/ran a 5K. First time in my life. I did the whole thing and it took me 49 minutes and I sprinted the last stretch to the finish so I think I like, got extra points for that or somethin'. That tall young man who finished in just over 18 minutes had secret retro rockets, so I think he got disqualified. Or somethin'. Just kiddin'. I'm against usin'  g's in the endin' of my words in this paragraph.

You don't have to be proud of me, but you do need to pity my calves. Thank you.